Wednesday, July 29, 2015

26-8 with Pence

While the Giants were leaving open the possibility Wednesday of still
making a splash – perhaps even a large one – before the non-waiver
trade deadline, their current 25-man complement remained one of the
hottest teams in baseball thanks in part to their two biggest deadline
acquisitions of the past three years.Jake Peavy pitched six
scoreless innings and Hunter Pence had two key defensive plays and the
tiebreaking hit in the Giants’ 5-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. The
Giants finished their six-game homestand with a 5-1 record, and have won
13 of their past 15 games, with Wednesday’s win moving them into a
temporary tie for first place in the National League West with the
Dodgers, who had a night game against the A’s.Amid speculation
that the Giants could try to add another front-line starter such as the
Phillies’ Cole Hamels or the Tigers’ David Price, the veteran Peavy had
arguably his best outing since coming off the disabled list at the
beginning of July, scattering four hits over his first scoreless outing
of the season. Since returning from the DL, Peavy has a 2.84 ERA
and has completed at least six innings in all five starts with the
Giants winning his past three. Wednesday’s game was scoreless in the
sixth when the Brewers singled twice with two outs to bring up Ryan
Braun. Peavy got ahead of Braun and, on his 91st pitch, threw a hard
cutter for a swinging third strike.“I think today was my best day
as far as stamina goes,” Peavy said. “I felt like I was at the same
place in the sixth as I was in the first. … It’s nice to be able to
reach back and have a swing-and-miss pitch there when you really need it
against an elite player in the league.”Peavy said he and Braun
have “had our share of battles” through the years, but Peavy has won
most of them. The sixth-inning strikeout made Braun 2 for 17 lifetime
against the Giants’ right-hander.“I wanted to get him out there in a bad way,” Peavy said, grinning. “I’ll tell you that.”